


(Don't you) Don't you think it's time

by Nerdofmanytalents



Series: As Long as You Follow [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Modified Episode Timeline, Paternity Reveal, Set Vague-ish-ly season one post Felicity's recruitment, just go with it, so this happens before The Dodger too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-05 21:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17332463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdofmanytalents/pseuds/Nerdofmanytalents
Summary: Felicity finally works up the courage to tell Oliver that he is the father of her son.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story operates on the trope that somehow before leaving on the Queen's Gambit, Oliver met Felicity and they had an intimate night together, resulting in a little boy.
> 
> Previous entries in this story are available by clicking on the series link. Thanks for dropping by!

Tonight. 

 

She had to do it tonight. The folder had been burning a hole in her purse for three days, and on her coffee table at home for two and a half weeks before that. But she had to tell him tonight. Or she would just chicken out again and maybe even talk herself out of it altogether, and go through the whole process again in another three weeks. 

 

Oh sure, at face value this was easy. _“Oliver, you're my son's father.”_ Five words. Well, three words and two conjugations. But despite how mothers of secret children stemming from illicit one night stands just blurted it out on the daily soaps, real life unfortunately required a little finesse. Especially when said unknowing father probably had literally no recollection of the night in question, what with the gap of five years on a deserted island between now and then.

 

God, her life really was a soap opera. Her mother would be _thrilled._

 

“I'm gonna head out.”

 

Felicity nearly jumped as Digg spoke from across the room where he had been sparring with Oliver. 

 

“Oh! Is it that late already?”

 

“Nah, I just gotta drop in on Carly and AJ on my way. Need me to walk you out to your car, Felicity?”

 

“No, I'm fine, I've just gotta… Finish up a couple things.” She glanced over at Oliver who was removing the knuckle tape from his hands. When she looked back at Digg he had a brow raised and an amused expression.

 

“Computer-y things,” she hastily excused. “Automated data searches and… stuff like that.”

 

“I can walk her out, Digg,” Oliver offered. “I'll be here for a while still.”

 

Felicity tried not to look suspicious as Digg paused for a moment glancing at both of them. 

 

“Alright,” he finally conceded. “Same time tomorrow?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“See you tomorrow!” she called to him as she watched him retreat up the stairs. 

 

The loud clang of the door signaling Diggle’s departure startled her enough to realize she'd been staring at Oliver for a few seconds too long and she quickly turned away to her computers. 

 

“Right! Searches.” She pulled up a window and started typing, glad Oliver wouldn’t realize it was not in fact, programming code and was actually just nonsense as she felt his eyes still on her. She spent a good minute pretending she was unaware of him before he spoke again. 

 

“Felicity, if you want to go, you can head out too. There's no need to keep the sitter waiting, I know you worry about being here too late.”

 

Pausing, she glanced down at her bag at her feet, then sighed. She bit her lip as she looked back up to find him leaning one hip against the side of her desk, arms crossed across his chest. She definitely did not take a moment to appreciate how casually handsome the posture made him look. Nope. 

 

“... Actually, I… I just… I need to talk to you about something.”

 

He cocked his head ever so slightly to the side in a rare show of playfulness. “Does this have to do with the fact that you've been eyeing your purse all night like it's going to explode?”

 

“You noticed?” she squeaked, snagging the bag up off the floor and clutching it in her lap. 

 

“A little,” he said with a wry smile. “What's up?”

 

“I….nothing. Um, well not nothing, it's definitely something. A big ‘something,’ really that I've been putting off telling you for weeks now but I just need to get it over with.” 

 

“Felicity,” he prodded firmly to get her back on track. “Is something wrong? Are arrangements not working for Jonas?”

 

She absently twisted the strap of her purse in her nervous hands. He seemed concerned. Maybe this wouldn't be as awful as she feared. 

 

“No, nothing like that.” She took a fortifying breath. “I need you to listen to me and just…. Let me talk, which I know is ironic with the way I normally babble but I promise I have a point.

 

“A few years ago, I was on break from school. My ex boyfriend had… died, a few months before, and I was at a bit of loose ends. I was trying to rediscover myself, evaluating my life choices. Deciding what to do with my life once the school year started up again.”

 

A wry smile crossed her face and she glanced up to find him watching her intently. 

“My mom, she's crazy, bless her heart, and got me a fake ID. I had just turned 18, and she said that I should… get out, try something new to get out of the funk I had been in since Cooper died. She dared me to do something I'd never done before, anything, just to get out of my own head for a while. So I went to a club. And when I was there…” She glanced down at her hands for a moment before looking up and meeting his gaze directly. “I met Ollie Queen, in town for one of his legendary boozy weekends with his best friend.”

 

He was silent for a long moment, regarding her pensively before finally speaking. “...Your hair was darker.”

 

Her eyes widened. “You remember? I thought... You never hinted, when we met…”

 

He looked down in an uncharacteristic action she could only describe as shame. “... Only a little. I wasn't sure if I was misremembering or if I was wrong... I was an ass back then-”

 

“Oh, I'm well aware.” She felt a bemused smile creeping on her face. “But… well, I did something crazy. For me, anyway. I'm not sure how much you remember but we… Spent the night together, and then I… I threw you out after because I thought you lied to me about being broken up with your girlfriend -- I guess that would have been Laurel back then. I told you I never wanted to hear from you again.”

 

She took in a shuddering breath and pulled the folder from her purse, consciously restraining herself from trying to twist and roll the paper out of nerves. Her rising nervousness at his intent focus on her made her knees feel like they were made of marbles. 

 

“I have been... so unsure of how to tell you this, but… I… A few weeks after we slept together, it was all over the national news. Billionaire Robert Queen and his son were missing somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. It was in the headlines for weeks and I felt awful even if I'd been mad at you. Nobody deserved that. But then… I… I found out I was pregnant.”

 

She thinks the look on his face would have been less stricken if she'd actually punched him in the teeth. She hoped he didn't notice how her hands were shaking in her lap. 

 

“Oliver, Jonas is your son. I am… so sorry for not telling you sooner. At first it was because you had just got home and you didn't need some girl you slept with once dropping her kid on you, and then we met again but you were… so obviously lying to me, so I was… I was concerned for Jonas… But then you kept… Coming by and it just got worse, me not knowing how to tell you. But you deserve to know. You are Jonas’ father.”

 

She watched him intently, spotting small tells of his shock as he processed. His arms were folded across his chest tighter, almost defensively, and his brow furrowed as he looked away for a long moment. When he looked back at her, there was something unreadable in his expression that almost seemed… vulnerable. 

 

“You…. you’re sure?” he finally asked. “I mean…I'm not trying to imply you--” 

 

“No. I know,” she assured gently. “It's… it's a lot to take in. But I am. Sure, I mean. I hadn't been with anybody since my ex months before and there wasn't anyone after. I didn't have any tests run or anything, and...I was scared to approach your mom. I didn't know how to without seeming like I was trying to take advantage of her loss. But he is your son.”

 

She slowly offered him the folder with a shaking hand. 

 

“This is just… a bunch of information. Pictures of Jonas as a baby, a copy of his birth certificate, a calendar of when everything happened, which is… completely ridiculous, now that I say it out loud. But you have a right to know about it all. About him.”

 

He took the folder from her but didn't open it, just staring at the manilla cardstock. Felicity tried to ignore the uncomfortable twisting and pounding of her heart and looked away as she got to her feet. 

 

“I'm sorry for dumping this on you like this. I know it's a lot, but I've been trying to figure out how to tell you since you came back. So just… take some time, look over everything. You can, um, call or text, or come by my place or whatever, if you have more questions.” She tentatively reached out and touched his arm. He looked up and if this had been anyone other than Oliver, she'd say he looked almost distraught. Or maybe even scared. 

 

“I'm not… I won't make you do anything you aren't comfortable with. I'm not asking for anything. I haven't told Jonas either. But… I think it'd be great if you could be a part of his life. In whatever way you're comfortable with.”

 

“I.. don't know… “ He started, voice unsteady, looking down at the folder she'd handed him. The only time she'd seen him this conflicted was when he'd been faced with the possibility that his mother might be involved with the List. 

 

Felicity nodded, more to herself than him, heart pounding painfully and a lump forming in her throat. “I know. Just take your time. I'll…head out now. Leave you to...think.”

 

He didn't stop her as she turned to go, and she couldn't help but glance back at him as she paused on the stairs on her way. Her heart twisted again as she saw him with the folder open, a picture of a squalling newborn Jonas in his hand, a myriad of unnamable expressions warring on his face. 

 

“Goodnight, Oliver. Please just… call me when you're ready,” she called softly before walking up the stairs and outside into the back alley. 

 

It took about five minutes sitting in her car for the tears to clear enough for her to drive home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver goes to see Felicity the day after she reveals who Jonas' father is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially Oliver's reaction was going to be its own story within the series, but as I wrote it seemed to fit a little better within this story than on its own.

Oliver couldn't remember the last time he'd had sweaty palms when he needed to talk to a woman. Probably not since he'd been a teenager. A young teenager. And yet here he stood outside Felicity's office like a nervous high schooler. 

 

Except Felicity had never really been just _any_ woman. From the moment she'd agreed to help him despite the skeptical tilt of her head, he had instinctively trusted her. She had been refreshingly new and in a very short period of time she had become his friend. And now she was even more than that. She was the mother of _his_ son.

 

Oliver had spent the rest of last night after she'd left the foundry poring over the manilla folder Felicity had given him. A printed out timeline of sorts with pictures had been in there, highlighting various important dates and Oliver had read it with rapt attention. 

 

Jonas had been born two weeks early on May eighth, about a week before Oliver's own birthday. Seven pounds, five ounces, and 19 inches long. That seemed so terrifyingly small to him, he could barely imagine it until he'd looked at the picture Felicity had attached; a newborn Jonas in the hands of a couple nurses, a vaguely purple-ish color to him overall as the little boy apparently wailed his displeasure to the world. It was far from a pretty picture but it had been viscerally real and had nailed the point home. That tiny wailing infant was his.

 

There had been a dozen more pictures in the folder along with various dates on the calendar. _“Finally home from the hospital after two days in the NICU!”_ had been the caption next to a picture of a younger Felicity holding an impossibly tiny baby wrapped in a green and blue blanket, looking tired but happy, propped up in a worn living room recliner. Her hair had been blonde, not brown like he'd remembered from the night they met, and shorter, cropped level with the top of her shoulder.

 

Each event had a picture next to it. _“First Hanukkah with Jonas,”_ had a picture of a messy faced six month old with what looked like a massacred powdered jelly donut clutched in a sticky fist. _"Jonas’ first steps, 11.5 months,”_ had a diaper clad Jonas clumsily waddling his way towards Felicity as she cheered him on. Even mundane events that couldn’t be expressed in photos like first words had a picture from the appropriate age attached. He'd felt an unfamiliar surge of pride as he learned more about the little boy who had chattered his ear off and held his hand as Oliver had bled out all over Felicity's back seat. 

 

He **wanted** this. It startled him, in fact, how much he wanted it. He had never particularly felt strongly one way or another towards kids. Before the island, he'd always brushed it off as some… ambiguous future obligation, to carry on the Queen line after he'd been inevitably shoehorned into some position at QC. It had never been something he'd imagined, not even when Laurel would hint at their “eventual,” future or try to quiz him on hypotheticals. The closest he'd ever been to considering it had been that brief scare with Samantha Clayton a year before he left on the Gambit. But as much as he'd been saddened to hear of the loss of her pregnancy, he'd mostly been relieved to be off the hook.

 

But not this time. He wanted to be a part of Jonas’s life. He missed the first day of preschool but he wondered what it would be like to drop Jonas off for his first day of kindergarten. He looked at the picture of Jonas seeing the sea lions at the Starling City Aquarium and he wondered if they'd ever been to the zoo as well. He remembered trips as a young child to the zoo with his own parents. Those had been some of his fondest memories of his childhood prior to Thea being born. 

 

These feelings of sentimentality and want were… Jarring. He hadn't once considered kids as part of his plan once returning home, hadn't even thought about it even when he'd longed to return home to Laurel and make things right. The idea had been to have a single-minded focus on the mission, to save the city. The List. But somehow knowing that he had a son had flipped everything on its ear. 

 

“Hey.”

 

He looked up quickly to find Felicity standing tentatively in the doorway of her office, a timid smile on her face. 

 

“Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt your…thinking face. But scuttlebutt was going around the office that Oliver Queen was currently looking a little lost in the hall outside the IT department and I just wanted to see if you needed anything,” She said softly. 

 

“I… Yeah. Can we… Talk? About the… Information you gave me last night?”

 

She nodded. “Sure. But… Well, I'm about to get off early so either I need to call down to the daycare and let them I'm running late to pick up Jonas or…” She looked up at him and bit her lip, a glimmer of what he thought might be hope on her face. “Or maybe you could come with and we could go get dinner together, with the three of us? Unless you're in a hurry?”

 

The fact that she was giving him a choice seemed significant and he settled on giving her a smile that he hoped wouldn't betray his nerves. “I can come with. That sounds… Nice.”

 

Her smile was positively sunny as she nodded. She then went back into her office to grab her purse and clock out before leading him to the elevator. 

 

The silence was suddenly painfully awkward and Oliver searched for something to say. Felicity fidgeted with the strap of her purse. 

 

“So… does Jonas go to the QC daycare every day?” he finally asked. Felicity seemed to relax a bit and nodded. 

 

“Yeah. He's gone since I started working here when he was a baby. He used to even sleep in my cubicle after hours when I had to work after the daycare closed. These days though he's usually only here afternoons on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays though. He has preschool in the mornings and then I bring him here on my lunch break. We get get off early on Tuesdays and Fridays when he's here my whole shift,” She explained. “Not that I'm trying to brag to my sort-of boss about how great my job is, but QC had the best daycare options for families of anywhere I applied after graduating from MIT. It was the deciding factor in moving to Starling.”

 

“I think that was something my mother started,” Oliver explained, thankful for the mostly neutral topic. “I remember there being a lot of talk about it when I was a kid. Dad used to bring me into the office with him a lot.”

 

“That sounds nice.” Felicity replied with a smile before the elevator doors opened. She led the way a few doors down the hall and after a moment he could see in the window of a brightly lit room filled with kids of a variety of ages. “This is it. You can come in or wait outside. It won't take long to get him checked out, then we can decide what to do for dinner.”

 

He nodded, and opted to follow her in, staying a few steps behind and off to the side as she went to the main desk. He looked over to a group of kids that were sitting at a low table coloring and spotted Jonas by his mop of blonde hair, concentrating hard on whatever he was working on. After a moment he looked up and spotted Felicity at the desk, excitedly getting up and rushing over, brandishing a piece of paper.

 

“Mom! Look what I made! Look!”

 

Oliver couldn't help a smile even as his heart sped up a bit, watching Felicity bend down to examine his picture. “Oh wow! Honey that's very good! We can put that on the fridge at home if you want.”

 

“No, I wanna give it to-hey! Mister Oliver!” Jonas spotted him and if possible somehow brightened even more. “Do you work at Mommy's work now too?”

 

“Uh… No, I'm just… Visiting,” he found himself awkwardly explaining. 

 

“Mister Oliver,” Felicity interceded, “Needs Mommy's help with computer work at his nightclub, so he met us here so he could let us in when we get there. Go get your backpack, Jojo, it's time to go.”

 

“K!” The four year old ran off in a blur to fetch his things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more part after this!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity talk about being Jonas' parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry for the long delay. I meant to have this up Sunday, but between three of the four people in our house being knocked out with pneumonia/asthma, a sinus infection, and an ear infection, and our landlord impulsively replacing a bunch of appliances in our house, real life has been a bit rough the last few days. Here's the final part of this story! Enjoy!
> 
> I apologize for any errors or confusion in the writing, as all my normal proofreaders have been unavailable.

After hitting a pizza place along the way, Oliver had accompanied Felicity and Jonas back to their apartment. It had turned out to be a little closer to the edge of the Glades than he had realized he felt comfortable with, but he'd been more assured when he observed Felicity utilizing a home security system she had apparently designed herself. Watching her disarm and rearm it, he realized was very similar to the system she'd set up her first week at the Lair. 

 

Jonas had then proceeded to excitedly show Oliver all of his favorite toys while Felicity pulled out plates and cups, then the three of them had settled down in the living room to eat. Jonas then insisted Oliver be shown one of his favorite movies once Oliver had confessed he hadn't seen any movies “in a really long time.”

 

He hadn't really been paying much attention to the movie (something about characters in a vintage arcade machine or something), and about ten minutes in, he'd been shocked when Jonas moved from his own spot on the couch and had made himself at home snuggled into Oliver's side. 

 

The little boy had dozed off about a half an hour ago, and Oliver had definitely spent more time watching him than the movie. He was very aware of Felicity's watchful eye where she was curled up in a recliner a few feet away. Despite how completely foreign it was, the whole thing was...nice. 

 

“I can take him to bed if you want,” Felicity finally spoke softly, prompting him to look over at her. Her eyes were soft and focused on Jonas as he snored lightly against him. 

 

“He…I don't mind. He's fine.” Oliver assured. He looked from her, to Jonas, and back. “Although I guess we should talk.”

 

“Yeah,” she conceded, a slight tremble in her voice as she turned to mute the TV. “I know last night was… A lot to drop on you out of the blue. I'm sure you have questions.”

 

“Only a lot of them,” he finally conceded with a wry chuckle, looking down as Jonas sighed and settled further into Oliver's side. “I guess the most important is… Are you okay this this? If I were to be a part of his life? When we met I… wasn't that great a guy. And now I'm a vigilante.”

 

Felicity was quiet for a long moment and didn't look up when she spoke. 

 

“When I was little, I was really close with my dad. He was brilliant, he was the one who taught me to work with computers and mathematics. But when I was seven, he walked out of my life. My mom raised me on her own from then on and at times it was really hard.”

 

She finally looked at him and the trust and vulnerability in her expression nearly winded him. 

 

“I need you… to be sure. When my dad left, I was young and confused and… and that hurt in a way that left me with a _lot_ of baggage I've avoided unpacking for most of my life,” She said with a self deprecating laugh before sobering. “But I don't want that for Jonas. I don't want you to agree to be his dad because you feel obligated and then walk away from us later because it wasn't what you thought it would be. I won't let anyone hurt him like that. So if you feel like… like maybe all you can do is to be mom's friend Oliver who has a superhero alter ego, then that's fine. That's great, I don't want to keep him from you and I think that you could be an amazing influence in his life. But please, just…Don't hurt him. Even if… Whatever may have happened between us or… Could happen, or whatever, with your mission or personally, it doesn't matter because Jonas is the most important thing.”

 

He watched her as she finally looked away, picking nervously at a stray thread on the arm of her chair. It didn't take his experience in interrogation to see that this conversation was a lot harder on her than she wanted to let on. She had opened up to him a part of her life, her son, because she felt it was right, despite how it might hurt her. Oliver had to forcibly push down every instinct from the past five years that was telling him not to let Felicity in. This was too important. Too _real._ He was humbled to realize she was offering him a lifeline towards the redemption of his soul he hadn't realized he'd hoped for since he made the decision to return home. The least he could do was grant her the same honesty she offered to him. 

 

“I understand, Felicity. And I know that you think otherwise but you didn't have to tell me, you could have kept this secret and I never would have known we…” He trailed off as he looked away from her and at Jonas. 

 

“I want this,” He finally felt come rushing out. “I don't know why, and I don't know the first thing about how to go about it, but I do. I spent hours last night looking over those pictures, and I felt… I don't even know.” He stared down at Jonas, and his heart twisted. “I somehow already love him. How is that even possible?”

 

“That's being a parent,” Felicity said with a smile. “Something about biological imperatives concerning our offspring and dopamine levels but it's basically magic.” Her voice softened. “I felt it the first time I felt him kick. And that's what it was. Magic.”

 

“I'm sorry you were alone,” he finally offered. “That couldn't have been easy.”

 

“It was hard. But…worth it. He's worth every challenge we've faced. And my mom really stepped up when I had him. She sublet her house in Vegas and helped me with him in Boston while I finished my degree. We've always been drastically different but it brought us closer. We still don't always see eye to eye but.. Well, Jonas loves his Bubbe. She just came for Hanukkah a little bit ago so it'll be awhile before you have to meet Donna Smoak in all her...glory.”

 

He chuckled. “I'll keep that in mind.” His brow furrowed after a moment. “I just realized I'm going to need to tell my mother about this.”

 

Felicity looked a little pained. 

 

“Does it have to be right now? No offense to your mother but she's kinda a scary dragon and 19 year old me was literally petrified at the idea of contacting her. Well not literally, I wasn't stiff as a board, but she was more than mildly scary to me and that hasn't changed even after kind-of-sort-of learning more about her and oh my gosh Oliver stop me before I completely digest my own foot-” By now a straight up grin was creeping across his face and she threw a pizza crust at him impulsively apologizing. “What I was trying to say is… Maybe the three of us could have some time where it's just… Us? Before the inevitable foofaraw gets stirred up?”

 

“That's more than fair,” he conceded. “If Jonas is going to be a part of my life, there will be a lot of interest. Both of your safety is my top priority. And I would really like to get to know him. Even just the pictures and timeline you gave me, I just… I wanna know all about him.”

 

“Well you're in luck because you've managed to have a kid with a tech nerd who has an entire hard drive of pictures from a DSLR I got as a graduation gift after MIT. There's even some videos too.”

 

“Really?” He perked with interest. “That would be… Great, I'd love to see those.”

 

“Of course. Whenever you want to. If we put him in his bed we could even get started tonight.”

 

It was decided, and Oliver helped Felicity out by scooping Jonas up and carrying him into his bedroom. The entire 20 foot walk with Jonas' dead weight cradled to his chest felt like Oliver was walking on clouds as he got used to the fact that this boy was _his_. There would be more nights like this, there would be time to get to know Jonas and become a part of their family. And two and a half hours of pictures and videos later, with a freshly printed photo of Jonas’s preschool ID picture tucked into the chest pocket of his jacket as Felicity waved him off, Oliver felt filled with a greater purpose than he'd felt since returning from Lian Yu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wraps up this portion! Remember if you'd like to see more from this AU, please subscribe to the series. And as always, I'm happy to receive to prompts of what people would like to see!
> 
>  
> 
> Every now and then I'm on tumblr so feel free to stop by.
> 
> nerdofmanytalents.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm a little nervous about this part because so many people were very concerned about Felicity telling Oliver about Jonas. I hope I did it justice--this thing was a bear to write and I trashed about four drafts before finally settling on this one.
> 
> As always, I apologize if something doesn't quite float your boat or seems beyond the realm of possibility for you, but please remember that this pet project is just that for me, and sometimes plausibility is fudged around the edges to meet our end goals in fic. And lets be real, folks. The source material itself pushes that boundary more than a few times.
> 
> I have several ideas in the pipeline for this series, though no idea on a timetable when I'll have more, as I'm writing as I am inspired and have time in my personal life. I would love to see what things people might like to see (from any point on, not just season 1) and I'll do my best to see if I can fit it in. 
> 
> As before, this is part of a series of disjointed one-offs and small multi-chapters, so if you are interested in seeing more, please subscribe to the series rather than this specific story.


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